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tv   MONEY With Melissa Francis  FOX Business  April 14, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm EDT

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so melissa francis, still going to be on it. v at that time i'm going to quach this hopefully it goes off as planned, in any case, the liftoff. melissa: i have complete confidence. thanks so much, deirdre. green all over the screen. a broad based rally in wall street after what felt like a is month long pummeling. amazon wants to make your smartphone and facebook wants to be your bank. even when they is always about money. melissa: the high frequency hysteria and outrage caused by michael lewis and "flash boys" is still making headlines. one firm is standing strong. here now is fox business's own
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charlie gasparino with breaking news. we have penn financial's matt mccall with us and scott martin from united advisors. charlie, i will throw it to you. >> virtue, the ipo that was pulled amid this hysteria/scandal. is now back. virtue founder vinnie viola is leaning toward doing an ipo. what i understand this is sources at virtue the tiling is uncertain but according to people who know vinnie this thing is likely, likely, can't say definitely, he wants to do it. he wants to do it in the coming weeks. we should point out you can't do an ipo without an ipo road show. the ipo road show date has not been set. they're playing with the timing. who knows what type of regulatory stufffthey're worried about. melissa: right. >> what people know, vinnie vie ol' last, former head of the nymex, head of virtue, his partner in this is silver lake. he is wanting to do it.
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he is leaning toward it. if i'm a beth man i bet he does it. melissa: you know silver lake wants to get it out there as well. >> we should point out one thing about viola. one of the main selling points with meetings with investors he will not sell a shingle share post ipo. he will hold on to his shares. melissa: ever in. >> that he is what he is saying. >> year or two, for sure. but saying not going to sell. >> talk to him don't talk to me. melissa: scott, this as the drumbeat continues to grow louder and louder. the sec is supposedly preparing a sweeping overhaul on high frequency trading. they will swoop down on all of this. where do they stand? what do you think? >> i think vinnie probably wants to rush this thing out, if he wants to go ipo as fast's he does. maybe he wants to high frequency trade them all day long doesn't really count you're selling them. here is the issue. this is one of the filings that shed light on whole idea. this was a firm that over five
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years, melissa, didn't lose money except for one or two days, right? remember this was the whole story behind virtue. now adays looking at them, going forward, what will be maybe their business model? one other interesting thing. this is not a company that needs an ipo in my opinion. their margins are fat. they're making tons of profit and paying out tons of distributions and hundreds of millionsof dollars. melissa: they have a private equity partner. >> they want out. melissa: they want to make money. >> still they're making tons of money. >> but private equity partner, private equity wants to do what private equity does and eventually cash out. >> i hear you. you have a ton of risk of bad ipo. >> that's true. >> after "flash boys" come out and it looks terrible. melissa: matt, i give you the last word. this has shed so much light on this industry whether it was new or not, whether we all knew this was going on, there is so much pressure for regulators to get involved. it calls in question the viability of the business. matt?
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>> obviously regulators are growing to be involved and i think they're lucky they didn't go public. imagine this was public and "flash boys" came out. the stock would have got demolished. melissa: we have breaking news. google will buy drone maker titan aerospace according to "wall street journal" may sound familiar, because remember facebook was in talks earlier to buy titan. google says it hopes titan will extend internet and capture images. interesting so the drone wars go on. what do you think real quick? are you interesting in a drone war? you want a drone following you around? >> i would make the point nobody knows, getting back to our last conversation, nobody knows what type of regulation is going to come down. is the sec really getting rid of the real problem here which is 50 different markets? melissa: yeah. >> by the way, i will tell you this, people at virtue believe the worst is over. if you saw the latest -- melissa: that is interesting. >> if you see the latest review of lewis's book in the "new york times" by james stewart, one of the best financial reporters out there,
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he said point-blank, he didn't see what is wrong with high frequency trading. melissa: no, but there is public pressure. shares of citigroup trading higher after beating on earnings. good news that sent the markets higher after last week's selloff. let's turn to trader alan knuckman at cme. what is driving the trade today because we are doing a lot better than we were on friday. >> we're not going up that much. we're getting a little bit of a bounce. looking market reaction, not so much actions. we had to sell off after the all-time highs. melissa: alan, let me stop you, everyone hear on the set growned we're not doing that well. well all rolled our eyes and growned. think about where we were on friday. we were major selloff. give me a break. >> if you're betting market this is best ink that can happen. market is correlated to financials. we worried about jpmorgan and citigroup comes out with a surprise on the upside. that is good. >> that is, citigroup at a support point. it had very limited downside.
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it is really sideways lowest level but i'm looking to see how the market reacts. if you look at midpoint numbers, at that is what i focus on the big picture, s&p midpoint from the 1897 to 1738 low on february 5th. we closed just below that on friday. it is important we're above that pivot. more importantly is the vix. 17 is the important midpoint of highs we saw in february to the recent lows. we were right at that level on friday now we've gone back below it. it will be interesting to see how we react rest of the week and build on the base we may be building. melissa: i throw it back at panel who is chomping at bit. >> he talked about the big point. big point, s&p 3% off all-time high. a how is that bad? if you're not in the market you're missing out on one of the best rallies of a generation. not up 100 points, 200 points. that is a heck of a good day. melissa: the question is has some of the confidence gone away? the fact that the market is built on sand?
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>> i would say this, you know me i'm not a big confidence booster. i don't pump stocks or trade or invest like these guys so i have no skin in the game. if the financials do well this week, if they follow what citigroup's doing have to think -- melissa: scott what do you think. >> that is the concern. citigroup's kind of been, dare i say the redheaded stepchild of the financial industry right? now they're the shiner. that is something to scratch your head about. >> yeah. >> we had wells fargo did okay. actually pretty good if you look at it with rose-colored glasses. jpm, charlie, absolutely terrible. that was an absolute totally confusing earnings report. melissa: i don't think citi really did that well? did mortgages on trading. assets terrible losing less money than they thought. >> revenues were a beat. >> people were expecting -- melissa: on expectations. >> people were expecting so much worse. i'll tell you, this is all expectations game. melissa: yeah. >> let's see what happens with morgan stanley and goldman sachs this week. if they overperform, they do
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better, outperform i should say, that's a -- melissa: go ahead. >> markets need financials to move higher. without the financials market can't move higher. last week was troubling because we had jpmorgan struggling. city groups kind of negates that. this week is important for future of the market. melissa: up 120, guys, stick around. thanks so much. banking on facebook, social network you used to keep in touch with your friend hopes you will send store cash, store money on facebook. forget silly batches. when it comes to wearable tech the next big thing is in your ears. yes, you heard that right. with to expect from the $5 billion hearable market. more "money" coming up. ♪
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predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do. but, manufacturing in the united states means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done.
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melissa: we want to remind you of breaking news we brought you in the last block. this is news story that broke at top of the show. google buying drone maker titan aerospace. this is according to "the wall street journal." titan was in early talks with facebook you will remember. that was the big story. but now, it looks like google
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has won the battle of the drone. who knows what is next. the techlandscape is growing more imposing and convoluted. one social media darling something being risk of being left in the dusk as allison moves towards 3d smartphones a damning new report casting serious doubt on twitter's entire user base. is it time for twitter to join its peeps to diversify? charlie gasparino and matt mccall and jo ling kent. jo, i know you're all over this face backstory. they're getting into financial transactions. a lot of people don't know they make 10% of their revenue in financial transactions. >> facebook is weeks away from doing mobile payments and store money on facebook. they would be able to create their kind of their own currency. facebook is not commenting to fox business about the story right now but it is a possibility for them to become more like paypal and give
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themselves a whole new revenue stream. melissa: does it make sense to you guys? >> i like it. so many people are connected on facebook. if somebody wants to move money from new york to somebody in emerging market they can move their money via facebook and somewhere it moves in the future. >> there is a lot of new information for facebook to collect. there is privacy play. what they do they get all of the information and specialize it and send it to advertisers, this is what they're buying. this is what they're not buying. this is what catches. melissa: i was shocked by the stat. charlie, you can speak to this one, our twitter aficionado. 40% of the twitter's 947 million accounts never sent a single tweet. are those not real accounts? are they bot accounts. >> they are bot accounts. i know of people -- melissa: we did a segment. you, half of twitter is fake? >> you know, listen, where are most of the people that have twitter accounts? where are they located?
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in the u.s. or overseas? most of them are overseas that barely use them. this is different business model than facebook. one of the interesting things about facebook, i don't know about this last thing they're doing. want to compete with paypal. that is nice. one of the things they do, they made a lot of money up front and made a lot of money through knowing a lot about people that use it. and it is -- melissa: that is essential difference. that is not what is going on in twitter. >> market something 99% of the business models of all these things. those are pretty big plus for facebook. twitter does not have the sort of information hub where it can market various products out to people. melissa: meanwhile, just to complete the circle, interesting to see amazon going into the smartphone business. some people are saying. that is crazy. it is hardware. it makes sense if they thought you would use your kindle to be connected with everything amazon and that is not working out. next thing they do is try to sell awe phone? are you buying into it? >> no, i'm not buying into it.
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the actual phone makers all struggled. that is a very tough business. that is not highly profitable. melissa: amazon will not make money on the phone. they will try to capture an contain you. >> you're still spending a lot of money and r&d to market the phone. i don't see where the revenue stream. they have can't be everything to everybody. they should stick to what they're doing. >> the smartphone market is saturated globally. apple and samsung dominate 49% of the global. it will be really hard to break in. remember when we're talking about smartphones now, not just a phone. possibility for a small business to use their payment system or for you to go shopping. melissa: or watch amazon prime. >> exactly. melissa: it is their device for getting you -- >> what i like about the company, they throw a lost stuff against the wall and they see what sticks. when you look at -- i've been covering tech a long time because i'm older than you guys i just remember where amazon began and -- melissa: shipping books in a box. >> everyone began with henry
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blodget 400-dollars a share call back in 1998, whatever and where it is now and a completely different k it is much more innovative. that is the genius behind it. have investors ben pitted from that, that is the question i have to ask you? have they benefited from the fact they innovated this much an trying a lot of different things? >> they have over the last few years. but the thing is, at some point does that end? can you continue to expand and be innovative, like apple kind of stuff? >> ge, innovative for many years before became sort of monolith it is now. melissa: we've got to go. thanks to all three of you. from the u.s. to every corner of the globe money is flying around the world. turkey, speaking of twitter, it is being targeted by the government yet again. this time it is for tax evasion. turkish officials say the social media site has been dodging taxes for years. oh, no. and should open a office in the country to pay its way. it was forced to stop the ban on
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twitter because of court ruling that interfered with free speech. teens spend so much time on their devices the government there may introduce a midnight curfew for smartphone gamers. interesting, curfew is already in place for pc gamers under 16 in south korea. schools are employing phone addiction experts for classroom discussion. how about parents? that's what parents are for! landing in the netherland where a glow in the dark highway is being introduced. the road uses high-tech paint which charges up during daylight hours and illuminates in the night removing a need for street lights. the futuristic road can warn drivers of icy conditions. i love how that looks, wow. coming up we may wait for wearables to catch on but next big thing in tech is already in the works. hearables are designed for your ears in mind. could it change the way we process information? now colorado weed users can
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avoid the bud tender completely. you have to hear how the state is getting ready for its first real weed vending machine. do you ever have too much money? ♪ i've always kept my eye on her... but with so much health care noise, i didn't always watch out for myself. dhealthcare, i get personalized information and rewards for addressing my health risks.
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but she's still gonna give me a heart attack. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.
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melissa: shares of general motors driving higher today. let's go to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. good day today, 2%. >> that is good move by general motors, down 20% this year. it is up 2% at 32.56. with know ceo mary barra is working hard to answer questions about the problematic ignition
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switches which caused 13 deaths. they have announced departures from communications and human resources. john quad drone will move into the role of human resources division. mary barra saying on a blog, executives will be held accountable in the company's ignition switch recall. meantime she certainly has been having to answer plenty of questions to lawmakers and the investigation remains underway but a good day in fact for general motors today. melissa. melissa: nicole, thanks so much. so if the movie her, made you wish a computer could whisper sweet nothings into your ear, good news because ear computers are poised to become a breakout star of wearable tech. intel and google are working on hearables and nick hunn thinks the market for these beauties could climb to over $5 billion. nick, welcome to the show. tell me how it works. you think of the bluetooth device that is sitting in your
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ear but this goes far beyond that, right? >> it does. it starts with a bluetooth device so it can stream music from your ear and we're now talking music instead of just voice. but the ear is quite a good site for measuring a lot of physical functions. we know medical temperature has been measured in the ear for ages. we can measure heart rate and blood pressure, lots of things. people are starting to put together that you put something in your ear and plays your music and looks like existing ear bug and tracks your fitness and mood and use that to talk back to you. melissa: do you think this catches on? everybody is walking around with fitbit wrist things trying to track everything from a health perspective there. is complaints of rash. it feels like a fashion fad and do you think this replaces that and is it stickier than that? >> i think it is. music is one of the stickiest
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things we've come to do. think back 30 or 40 years. we only listened to music in one place and it was playing. there is real revolution with music players we have music wherever we to all day. i think that stickiness is good place to bring the extra technology rather than forcing it back on to the wrist where most of us have given up wearing wristwatches. melissa: that's true. you think it could be a five billion dollars market next five years. isn't it like google glass though? you hear about these things and kind of cool and somebody gets it and they look like such a dork that it ends up not really catching on? >> absolutely. i think one interest that makes ear interesting, industries are putting ear buds into our ears. hearing aid industry with medical industry has really amazing tech going into hearing aids. there is quite a lot that can come together of existing technology, existing knowledge and existing designers.
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you tend to have tech companies playing with the wrist. i think that is why it has potential. melissa: who has the most compel offering? i know dash is one player in the space. who is winning? >> i don't think anybody is winning yet. we're just on the edge of it happening. the dash is a really interesting product. if that takes off and deliver on time or close to time. that is the problem of kick-starter projects they send to be late, if that deliver what is is offering i think we'll see other companies jumping to that track. melissa: nick, thank you so much. >> thank you. melissa: before we go to break, tough check this out. america's first-ever pot vending machine. it is called the saz machine. it will find edibles but not to everyone but licensed marijuana cardholders. he have this insert the idea and have it scanned. out comes the goodies. great for shy customers who don't want to deal with folks
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behind the counter. we talked about similar machines. but they were limited to back of dispensary where only bud tenders could access them. matt, what do you think about? >> i think it's a great idea. i think there lot of people, i loved in colorado for many years that do smoke marijuana. melissa: were you one of them? set yourself up for that? >> i plead the fifth. they want to mike out middle confident night, 2:00 in the morning -- melissa: get a pot brownie. >> put a vending machine with community chris. melissa: fritos the perfect compliment. i live it. >> great business idea. melissa: taxing the rich, nobel prize-winning economist robert schiller's plan to level the playing field for the other 99. tweet me, tell me what you think. winging it on prom night but will it be original recipe or extra crispy? kfc's plans to crash the party. "piles of money" coming right up. passion...
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became your business. at&t can help simplify how you manage it. so you can focus on what you love most. when everyone and everything works together, business just sings.
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how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagin how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 3years or mor so maybe we need to approach things dferently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement.
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♪ melissa: a market in the green, the dow 50 points off session highs. still up 100 points. following last week's selloff, jason is at the new york stock exchange with more on this one. what is going on, we are losing steam. >> the index a little sick right now. we had some nice retail numbers this morning. and nice positive surprise. melissa: even as we are talking we are losing more and more points. >> it is a little disconcerting. we were up north of 100 we gave up 30 points.
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i have not checked the most recent numbers of the s&p. the same action, very disconcerting. melissa: we will keep an eye on it. thank you very much. robert shiller is urging higher taxes to solve the income inequality problem. our panel is back with us. he makes the point that if we wait until inequality is more severe, we will have a whole class of the new super rich who feel entitled to their wealth and will have the means to defend their interest. it has already gone far enough. the hand gesture. i could feel him thinking that. >> the last five years amid a presidential administration the most class conscious divided people among classes, we have had more income inequality than ever before.
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melissa: do you take away from the rich and give to the poor? what do you do? >> i would say damn the hikes. damn them. look over the history, this has been a tax rate environment exacerbating the issue. even when lyndon johnson took the idf massive tax cuts further back in the 60s, that is when inequality narrowed. when you see tax hike, that is when we see it rise, that is what you are seeing right now. melissa: what do you think about that? it spreads further and further out, you risk down the road somewhere. >> they feel entitled to their money. why are they not entitled to it? i am entitled to my money. >charlie: i think one of the big
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problems with the high-frequency thing, we get to know many viola very well. a poor middle-class neighborhood in brooklyn. he became smart, went to school, now worth multiple billions of dollars. if you want to be successful don't set your sights on making minimum wage at walmart. melissa: he says you think this guy has more money. this guy has more money because he's worked harder? no, he's had the right opportunities. >> thousands of stories go against that. most of america was built going against that. >> president obama has an amazing story. pretty amazing as well. but people who study, take the right courses, go to college, generally end up getting jobs.
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if you have a problem with job creation for young people right now, you voted for the guy, it is very difficult for corporations to hire you. melissa: as a devil's advocate, i would looking at an economy creating a bigger divide between the haves and the have-nots a lot of the middle-class jobs are going away, and we are seeing this divide between those who work in the service sector and those are becoming scarce, replaced by automation in robots and the people who got way, way ahead, how do we help more people move up if we don't take my away from the rich and give it to the poor the way shiller says? >> the causes can be debated, but i will tell you this much. if you walk around and talk to the various business owners, especially the small business that creates the jobs, the economic activity, they do a lot of the spending creating more jobs, the reason the middle-class folks and lower
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class, those are the ones getting hurt, not liking with this and administration is doing. melissa: do you think it is easy and the tax burden on them? >> go to north dakota, go to places where they frock and you will see blue-collar people making money. you don't see that. thanks, andrew cuomo. melissa: up next, does marketing gone wild. making it in more ways than one. at the end of the day it is all about "money." ♪
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[ male announcer ] this m has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more pressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪
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melissa: i am melissa francis with your fox business brief. crest is buying investment management firm for more than $6 billion. the acquisition gives the firm extra $2 billion in assets under management. turning them into one of the country's biggest money managers. u.s. retail sales rose 1.1% last month showing signs the economy needs to rebound from the brutal winter. data shows the largest gain in sales since september 2012. mining company glenn couric strada is selling one of its biggest options. the all-cash deal is worth
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$6 billion in one of china's biggest mining acquisitions in recent years. wow. that is the latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper.
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why relocating manufacturingny to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate. the conditions in new york state are great for business. new york is ranked #2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. and now it's even better because they've introduced startup new york - dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. you'll get a warm welcome in the new new york. see if your business qualifies at startupny.com melissa: whether it is on wall street or main street, here's what is making headlines
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today. anybody with a piece of citigroup, the stock is up almost 4%. the ceo having a great start to the week. he has made almost a million dollars today. losing money. warren buffett, the oracle of omaha lost a billion dollars in the first quarter. it is all down to one stock, coca-cola. it has been plummeting more than 6% in the past few months, but he is undeterred saying he won't consider selling a single one of his 400 million shares in the company. at risk of losing big advertising bucks in the future, the masters. this year's first major golfing tournament took it did in ratings getting just 7.8. a big drop from the 10.2 that it got last year. some are pointing the finger at tiger woods who was notably absent from this year's event. it is marketing gone wild. kfc offering up a one-of-a-kind prom date, a nice, juicy chicken
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corsage. what teenage girl wouldn't want that? wow. kentucky fried corsage. all you try to do is not get chicken on your clothes. i don't get this one. >> i am so glad you said that. i was thinking i am the only one on this planet, go with me on this. here i am, 12 greater, you are going to be my prom date and you are everything dream of in my 12th grade adolescent boy mind. melissa: yes, i am! >> blonde, beautiful, and i'm going to pin a chicken wing on you? melissa: and she is smelling it. do i smell fabulous, what perfume. you want fried fried chicken perfume? the aroma of greece following
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you. >> maybe it is if you use that, you get the munchies, you have a chicken wing right there. melissa: i guess. very funny. marketing, talking about things, the marketing has been great. it is hard to believe it is an actual thing anybody would wear. you might get it as a joke. i don't know. >> if it gets people tweeting about it and on facebook. melissa: there you go. how about the beekeeper merchant who covered his body in half a million these to increase sales of his honey. this has to sting in more ways than one. >> a lot of people cover themselves with things to raise money. lady gaga covered herself with meat. "sports illustrated" covers people in bathing suits. but in order to protect himself was going to put a bag over his head. i would think the bag would go
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over my head. melissa: the e-trade baby has quit. the new ad campaign. listen. ♪ i know a thing about an ira ♪ i am doing it my way ♪ i am doing it all from my mobile phone ♪ ♪ if i need some help, i'm not alone ♪ melissa: i am wondering if it is not too late to get the baby back. i had no idea what they were saying. >> i think the baby is going to have to come back. we have a great idea, come up with this baby, it will talk and people will fall in love with it. and then we are going to fire
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the baby. who thought of that? did they have to pay for that? this sounds like a song i already know. i did hear they are bringing kevin spacey next. melissa: i saw the ad already, it is not that great. but it is better than this. we have to go. thank you so much. we want to show you this because it is so not money. student missed out on a million dollars after a series of mishaps that had the worse shouting at their screen. >> mythological hero -- >> on the spot decision. melissa: unbelievable. he could not get "on the spot decision."
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he managed to walk away with the most points. i did not see wheel of fortune, but on the replay, wow. >> it was filled out for him. this is a college kid. you would think if you're pulling the college kids out there. but what college kid wants to be on "wheel of fortune." melissa: that was very much not money. on the spot decision was all spelled out for him. a lot going on today in the market. liz claman coming up. wow. liz: okay, so with the market highs. you might have mentioned this, melissa, a russian jet buzzed a worship in the black sea. let me tell you, folks, the situation in ukraine, the market still very much looking for a reason to rally. had rallied today on good retail
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sales numbers but it was down. fox business exclusive with the former deputy state department of economic growth. you know him well from goldman sachs as well, now with the kissinger and associates group. he knows everything about diplomacy and the markets. we will ask him about that and focus on why the markets are falling. the all-important final hour of trading. melissa: liz claman, thank you very much. coming up, soldiers listen up. a new desk may make you more productive. you can never have too much money. [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts...
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♪ ...work with equity expert.. who work with regional experts... that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration.
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melissa: madmen seventh and final season kicked off last night. the amc drama returns to lower ratings. according to nielsen, season opener averaged 2.3 million viewers. it is a million viewers less than last year's opener. i tivoed it, watching it later. stocks sliding, dow below 100 right now. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. what are traitors talking about? >> we have come off the highs of the day. this is a volatile market, no doubt. a strong dollar, commodities are higher, their moving in correlation with the 10-year bond. as the yield comes down, stocks come down. noting exactly that. we have been watching the high
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flyers. most of them tr trying to hold o gains. the market for us has weakened slightly earlier today. the other thing you should know, melissa, as i toss it back to you, is volume. thursday and friday we had heavy volume. it brings volatility along with it. melissa: as we are talking we building back. dropped to about 80. thank you so much. one company is raising more than a little spare change in less than two weeks of crowdfunding. an automated desk that moves from sitting to a standing level with studies showing standing can lead to 10% more productivity, it might not surprise you almost 900 people are stepping up to back this new device. joining me now, founder and ceo, stephen. people in our audience, if you don't live in a big office may not realize this is a trend taking hold.
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i see people standing all the time. what is different about your standing desk? >> i designed a desk i figured out how to use one-third of the parts to dramatically decrease the cost of the desk. one of these desks but the cost is 1000-$2000. for the major market they need something that is affordable and that simply works. melissa: it is still a lot. >> compared to others that cost over $1000, i think it is much more affordable than those. melissa: we are looking at the video right now. it is automated, so it goes up and down depending on where you want to be. how long does it take you to go up and down, and will that break on me? >> absolutely not. we tested over 10,000 times. press this button.
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melissa: you are making it work right now, let's take a look. >> and the desk magically goes up. and a couple more seconds you will get in the right position where you like to work standing. melissa: it is amazing how kickstart a works. 873 backers, you have raised $334,000. they give you $100, did they get one of the desks for $100? >> that is for international expansion. we are focusing completely on the u.s. people all around the world, over 2 20 countries have contacd me about distributing this product and delivering to them. before we expand, what we wanted to do was create a $99 reward so once we decide to expand that country, the backers can pay us the difference and we send them the desk. melissa: good luck, stephen. thank you very much. opportunity knocking or disaster at your doorstep?
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melissa: online transactions, shaky regulations and risky dealmaking, con artist have got to be loving this trend. crowdfunding is expanding as some see a lucrative opportunity, others see a scam artist. i have seen more and more articles about this. this is picking up steam. it is not really crowdfunding any traditional sense. it is like a donation. the right to buy the product later. this is more of an investment. scott, what do you see as a
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potential problem put in $500 you own a piece of this? >> it is pretty boom-bus. there will probably some good opportunities out there and some real trash. this is a very new market, a very new concept. if you are playing real estate and there are some big dollars, you can find the project or development that works for you. you are going to tie up your liquidity. unlike buying a stock that you can sell at 2:00 p.m. today, he might be stuck until they sell the property or until it goes to zero. melissa: we are talking about in all these different deals you give them a thousand dollars, $5000, how do you know they are selling all the product, how do you know you can never get out or what you will get out of it? >> i feel lack of regulation is a good thing.
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but at the same time if i am sending $5000 to a shopping ma mall, how do i know that guy is running it correctly? there is a lot of risk with this. the potential is there for this to be successful but the average investors going to get scammed. melissa: i think they will get scammed. crowdfunding is such a trendy name right now. it seems like this would be ripe for con artists to say i am crowdfunding this fabulous mall. for $2000 you could eventually make a fortune. how would you even begin to vet this kind of a thing? >> it reminds me of the south china mall. you would have the cream rise to the top. if somebody did that, they would be out of the business but how dmany people do we know have doe this and all the sudden uncle
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jimmy doesn't send you the check and you are broke. melissa: the moral is beware. i hope you are making money today. "countdown" with liz claman begins. liz: back in the ussr? russian government refusing to back down in eastern ukraine. the u.s. and europe threatening new sanctions. what happens next, and how could it impact your money? former state department here on the diplomatic and economic chess pieces might move next. herbalife under siege. the fbi probing the weight loss company four months. as charlie gasparino first reported, there may be a whistleblower behind the scenes ready to talk. as bill ackman licks his chops, will carl icahn stay with it? our all-star panel breaks it down. and, supersize my feet. --dash i

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